


Accidental

by theycallmethejackal



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 02:28:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6637300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theycallmethejackal/pseuds/theycallmethejackal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if it hadn't been Sam who accidentally slept with a call girl in the pilot?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Morning After

**Author's Note:**

> I've written several chapters, but I don't know how I'm going to wrap it up yet. For the sake of Donna's timeline, she's a couple years older than she actually was at the time of the pilot.
> 
> Also I apologize for the crappy title. I'd love suggestions for a better one.

She’s warm.

 

That’s the first thought that enters his mind as he wakes slowly, his arm slung over her waist. It feels nice to wake to the feeling of another person in his bed instead of a pillow over his face.

 

This isn’t something he makes a habit of –– picking up women in bars and taking them home. And he definitely doesn’t make a habit of waking up next to them in the morning. He may talk a big game, but he’s truly a gentleman. He likes to woo –– scratch that ––  _attempt_ to woo women. CJ has said many times that Joshua Lyman has no game. But he doesn’t like to just jump into bed with a woman. He likes to think he has more respect for them than that.

 

There was just something about this woman. It was like he couldn’t bear to _not_ touch her. And the moment he had, the fear of being fired melted away. He wouldn’t have been able to remember who Mary Marsh was if she had come up and smacked him across the face.

 

Slowly, Josh scoots closer to her, pressing his body fully against her back, kissing along her shoulder and up her neck, where he nuzzles her jaw and comes to the stunning realization that he doesn’t want this to be a one-time thing. Even though they’ve only known each other less than twelve hours, he’s pretty sure waking up next to her is something he could do forever.

 

He feels her arch into him, a sexy little groan rumbling in her throat as she wakes. “I think that was the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had,” she murmurs, her eyes still closed as she settles into the pillow once more. He swears she snuggles closer to him if possible.

 

“Glad I could be of service,” he teases, his fingers now trailing up and down her side from just below her breast down to her hip and back. He feels her laugh quietly and he moves his fingers over the curve of her breast.

 

“Mm, Josh,” she hums. He’s pretty sure that little murmur of his name is as erotic as the many times she screamed it just a few hours prior. She scoots away, and Josh moves to follow, but then he realizes she’s rolling onto her back, and he can’t complain about that when their lips connect again.

 

His hand explores her body once more, enjoying the softness of her small breasts, her taut, flat abdomen, the gentle curve of her hips… Just as his fingers begin drifting between her thighs, an annoying beeping sounds from his bedside table. With an annoyed sigh, he hangs his head and rolls onto his back, reaching for his pager.

 

 _POTUS IN BICYCLE ACCIDENT._ “Shit,” he mutters, flopping back against his own pillow.

 

She turns her head to look at him before propping herself up on her elbow and running her right hand over his chest. “Gotta go?” She asks, blue eyes understanding as she finds his gaze. He can see the arousal there from their interrupted activities, but as much as he wants to continue, he can’t not go into work.

 

“Believe me, if it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t leave this bed at all today,” he assures her, lifting his head and giving her another quick, firm kiss before rolling out of bed.

 

“Yes, because you’re a very important person.” He hears the teasing lilt in her voice, and it makes him smile as he slips into a pair of fresh boxers. He recalls saying that last night and her laughing about it. He’s certain she made some snarky comment, but he can’t quite remember what it was.

 

“I am, at that,” he replies. Tossing his pager back onto the table, he moves to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he comes back, she’s gotten out of bed and started dressing. “You don’t have to leave right now,” he tells her as she picks up her underwear. “I mean, it’s five in the morning and you said you don’t have class today … you can sleep some more,” he adds awkwardly.

 

He sees her toss her underwear into her purse, and all he can think about for a moment is how wet she’d been when he pulled them off of her. Then he realizes she’s going to be going commando back home and he has to conjure up images of Toby to prevent his erection.

 

“Yes, but then how would I lock up when I leave?” She points out as he pulls a shirt from his closet.

 

“It’s a safe building. I don’t really need to lock the door during the day.” The door to the building will be locked anyhow.

 

She slides into her jeans, and he enjoys the way she wiggles just a little to get them on. “It’s okay,” she promises. “I have a paper due Monday that I should work on.”

 

Reluctantly he decides to accept that answer and slips into his shirt, buttoning it as she slips her own on. It’s then she remembers: “You were a bit enthusiastic with this…”

 

He smirks at the sight of the shirt, threads dangling from where the buttons should be. “It was blocking my view. It had to be destroyed.” His joke receives a playful eye roll. “Here,” he offers, opening one of his drawers and pulling out a shirt. It’s one of his old Harvard t-shirts, and when she slips it on, it’s large on her delicate frame, but he finds he loves the sight.

 

He finishes dressing as she searches for her shoes. One she manages to find, but she’s still searching for the other as he slips into his suit jacket. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees it sticking out from beneath the corner of his side of the bed. “Got it,” he says, picking it up.

 

She moves to him and takes it from his hand with a smile. “Thanks.” Using his shoulder to balance, she puts the sandal on her right foot. “Your tie’s crooked…” Before he can fix it himself, she takes hold of it, gently adjusting the knot so the blue tie hangs straight.

 

“Thanks,” Josh echoes breathlessly as she looks up at him, her hands resting flat on his chest in a moment of surprising domesticity. All he knows about this woman is her name and that she’s in her third year of law school at Georgetown, but he feels strangely connected to her. He can’t help ducking his head and kissing her slowly, and he’s incredibly pleased to feel her hands sliding up to cup his neck. “God, I really wish I didn’t have to go to work,” he mutters.

 

He watches a little grin meet her lips. “Me too,” she replies, pulling back and moving to get her bag.

 

“Let me drive you home,” he blurts out gracelessly.

 

He sees her open her mouth to say no, but he’s thrilled when she closes it again and nods. “Okay.”

 

Ten minutes later, she has him stop in front of a beautiful-looking townhouse. “Maybe we should have come back to _your_ place,” he comments.

 

“Yeah, I don’t think my roommate would have appreciated the noise,” she replies, smirking as she unbuckles her seatbelt and looks at him across the center console. There’s a moment of tension between them – Josh didn’t think it was possible to have sexual tension with someone you’ve already had sex with, but clearly he was wrong – and she leans over and kisses him again. “Do good today, Joshua,” she murmurs against his lips before opening the door to leave.

 

“Thanks, Donna,” he replies, watching her ascend the steps to her front door, only driving away when he can no longer see her.


	2. Semantics

He didn’t get fired.

 

Just a gentle warning from the President: “Don’t do it again.” Now his giddy mood from this morning has returned, and Sam seems to think there’s something incredibly strange about that. The speechwriter bugs him from the moment he arrives until Josh leaves the building.

 

He gets home a little after eight and is surprised but not at all disappointed to find Donna sitting on his stoop. Eager to see her again, he practically bolts out of his car, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and moving toward the blonde. “Well this is a nice surprise,” he comments with a smirk.

 

“You, um…have my pager,” Donna tells him, holding his out to him in her hand. She looks awfully tense.

 

“Oh,” he replies with a furrowed brow, taking her pager off his belt. “They look exactly alike,” he observes, handing it to her and taking his own back.

 

She frantically explains, “You got a message. I would have brought it to you earlier, but I didn’t know how to reach you –– “

 

“Donna, it was an honest mistake.,” he promises, clipping it back onto his belt after checking the message. It was from CJ, but since it was from noon today, he assumes they’ve dealt with it already.

 

“You want to come up?” He asks after a moment, nodding his head toward the front door. She pauses, looking up at the door, and suddenly it’s his turn to start rambling, “Or we could go get a bite to eat or something. I haven’t eaten anything since lunch, and I don’t have food in my apartment, so maybe it would be a good idea to –– “

 

“Josh, I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

 

He hopes the devastation twisting in his stomach isn’t visible on his face. He’s not even sure why he feels shattered by her words. It was one night – one _incredible_ night. “Do I get to ask why?”

 

He sees her sigh, but he notices she hasn’t met his gaze. She’s opted for staring at her shoes or her pager or looking off to the side past him. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea,” she replies.

 

“Really? ‘Cause I think it’s a _great_ idea,” he counters, feeling his voice get a little high at the end.

 

She huffs, “It’s not,” and when he opens his mouth to protest, she steps down from the step to the sidewalk. “I should go,” she says abruptly, turning away and heading down the sidewalk.

 

“Donna!” He calls after her, but she keeps walking, not looking back, and he can’t help but think it hurt even more than any of his past breakups.

  

* * *

 

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

He’s leaning on the planter next to her stoop, where he’s been waiting for a while. “I just thought I’d stop by and ask if you wanted to get coffee,” he replies.

 

“I have to get to class,” she tells him, continuing down the steps.

 

He tags along at her heels. “Well then how about after class?” He asks. “There’s a great place around the corner from – “

 

“Josh, I told you I didn’t want to see you again,” she interrupts, continuing her brisk pace down the sidewalk.

 

“Ah!” He replies, moving to walk backwards in front of her. “But you didn’t say that. You said it wasn’t a good idea for us to keep seeing each other. I’m a lawyer – semantics are kind of my thing,” he points out, giving her a dimpled grin as he falls into step beside her once more. “So that leads me to believe that you _want_ to keep seeing me, but you’re afraid of something,” he deduces.

 

Donna stops and turns to face him. “Josh,” she tells him sternly. “Go away. We can’t see each other anymore. It was a one time thing – “

 

“Two, actually,” Josh points out. “Almost three. Damn pager,” he jokes with a smirk.

 

He notices her fighting a grin, and she manages it for a moment. “I have to get to class. It was one night. One _amazing_ night…” At that, she finally allows her lips to curve into a sad little grin. “Let’s just leave it at that,” she tells him, turning to cross the street.

 

He watches her go, wishing he could figure out what it is that has her so averse to the idea of continuing to see him. His first thought is that maybe she didn’t enjoy that night as much as he thought she had, but that seems a ridiculous thought. There’s no way she was faking it. His next thought is that maybe she has a problem with the age difference, but that wasn’t an issue when she went home with him…

 

Thoughts of her plague his mind day in and day out. As much as he wants to pursue her, he’s going to respect her wishes. She asked him to stay away, so he will.


	3. The State Dinner

“I hate these things.”

 

“Josh, you’re a politician.”

 

“Doesn’t mean I can’t hate these things.”

 

He can practically hear Sam roll his eyes next to him. “You just hate it because you know the President is in the Oval taking Mandy’s advice instead of yours. If he’d done what you’d told him, you’d be having fun.”

 

Josh huffs indignantly. That’s only half true. Of course he’d be having a better time if Mandy wasn’t here, but the truth is he can’t manage to get his mind off Donna, something he hasn’t even divulged to his best friend.

 

He’s looking around the room when he unfortunately catches the eye of Carl Everett, a wealthy donor in the Democratic Party. Carl waves him over, and Josh reluctantly excuses himself from Sam’s side and makes his way across the room. He wouldn’t want to offend one of the party’s major donors. Even if he is a sleaze.

 

“Josh,” Carl greets.

 

“Good to see you again, Carl. How are things out in California?”

 

“Sunny, beautiful. Hell of a lot better than I deserve,” the blond man replies. “You’ve been doing some fine work these past few months.”

 

“Doing my best.”

 

“I especially appreciated the comment you made to that awful woman… Mary Marsh, is it?” He asks, causing Josh to chuckle. “I hope you didn’t get too much trouble for that.”

 

“Well, you know, there were rumors the only way I’d even get close to the White House again would be if I was digging through the dumpster,” he jokes, “but everything turned out alright.”

 

“Excellent. Let me introduce you to my date. Brittany?” He calls, turning over his shoulder and motioning to a slender blonde woman. Josh’s heart sinks into the pit of his stomach as she turns around.

 

She extends her hand to shake his, and he takes it, introducing himself as though he doesn’t already know her intimately – like he hasn’t seen her moving on top of him, gasping for air and crying out his name.

 

Like he doesn’t know her real name is Donna.

 

“Pleasure to meet you,” she tells him with a smile he knows is false but looks so natural.

 

Next to them, Carl’s pager beeps and he excuses himself to find a phone, leaving Josh and ‘Brittany’ in awkward silence for a long moment.

 

“Did you know that in certain parts of Indonesia, they summarily execute people they suspect of being sorcerers?” She blurts out, looking like a deer in headlights.

 

He wants to smile at her, but he can’t. There are too many thoughts whirring through his head. Stepping closer to her, he murmurs in her ear, “We need to talk.” His hand finds the small of her back and he guides her through the crowd and down the hall to his office. He’s surprised that she agrees.

 

The door closes behind them, and he plants his palm firmly against it, ducking his head as he tries to collect his thoughts. “Please tell me this isn’t what it looks like,” he murmurs, turning to face her. She stands in the middle of his office, clutching her purse in her hand as she watches him. She looks so scared. “Please tell me you’re not – “

 

“I am.”

 

He leans his back against the door, his head falling back against it with a thud. She’s a call girl. He’s the third most powerful man in the White House and he slept with a god damn call girl. And now he can’t get her out of his head. There’s a long silence between them. “It’s just so I can pay my student loans,” she tells him.

 

“Yeah, because that makes it okay,” he practically bites back, stepping toward her.

 

He sees her exhale. “I’m not proud of this, Josh, but I didn’t have anything else I could do. I was barely able to get through undergrad with two waitressing jobs. I couldn’t go to school and pay rent in D.C. any other way than this.”

 

“So take out a loan.”

 

“I couldn’t get approved for one. My ex-boyfriend maxed out my credit on his own schooling, and no bank in its right mind would give me a loan I could ever pay back.”

 

He sighs. “But you don’t do _this_ , Donna,” he insists. “You don’t risk your entire future. You don’t think that if you ever decided to run for office, they’d dig this up?” He shouts, waving his arm angrily.

 

She’s silent for a brief moment as they just stare at each other. “You’re safe, Josh.”

 

He furrows his brow. “What are you – “

 

“This isn’t about me or my future. You’re not mad because this is going to hurt me. You’re pissed off because you think someone is going to connect the dots from me to _you_.” He opens his mouth to rebuff, but she lifts a hand, silencing him. “I didn’t tell anyone about that night. And I told you it’s not going to happen again. I wouldn’t put your career or the President's reputation at risk like that. Now I’m going back to the party. From now on, I’m just a girl you met at an event at the White House. That’s all.”

 

Josh grabs her by the elbow as she tries to brush past him. “Don’t go home with him,” he breathes, unable to look her in the eye again until the words have passed his lips. She’s frozen, and she looks so incredibly beautiful that he can’t stop himself from pressing her against the wall and kissing her deeply.

 

She returns the kiss so eagerly. As though she wants him as badly as he’s wanted her every minute of every day for the last three weeks. Her fingers tangle in his hair and his grip her waist as she rocks into him wantonly.

 

Tilting his head, he starts to lavish Donna’s neck with open-mouthed kisses as his hands tug at her dress, lifting the silver material that stands between him and those incredible legs. “Josh,” she whimpers as his hands find the skin of her thighs. He can feel her rocking against his leg, but then she stops. “Josh,” she chokes out, pushing him off of her. “We can’t,” she whispers, quickly leaving the office in tears.

 

He stares after her, praying to a god he’s not sure exists that she doesn’t go home with Carl Everett tonight. 


	4. Apology

He goes to her place on Tuesday at lunch. He hadn’t been able to get away on Monday, and Sunday, only a day after the incident, seemed too soon.

 

It’s probably not the best idea – showing up at the apartment of a high-priced call girl – but here he sits on her stoop, hoping she’ll show up during the hour and a half he has before his next meeting on the Hill.

 

He’s only there for twenty minutes when he sees her crossing the street toward her apartment. It’s clear she hasn’t seen him yet, so he stands and hangs his backpack over his shoulder again, waiting for her to notice him there. When she does, she stops dead in her tracks, looking at him the same way she had when they were left alone together at the State Dinner. When she manages to move again, she walks quickly, making her way up the steps. “You shouldn’t be here, Josh.”

 

“Donna, wait,” he calls, bounding up the steps two at a time to cut her off at the door. He looks at her on the step beneath him. Donna stops and looks up at him as though debating whether to just sidestep him and go inside, but she doesn’t. She just looks up at him expectantly. “I just wanted to apologize for the other night. You asked me to stop pursuing you, and I did it anyway. I’m gonna…you know, respect your wishes,” he promises.

 

She looks at him for a long moment before she nods. “Good,” she replies quietly, still not attempting to get past him.

 

She offers him a gentle grin, so he feels comfortable continuing. “I mean it’s not gonna be easy,” he says with a smirk.

 

“Well of course not,” she banters back, moving to stand on the stoop next to him. Her keys are in her hand, but she makes no move to open the door. “I mean, I am irresistible.”

 

“And it’s gonna be even harder for you to resist me. I’m not sure if you know this, but I’m a very important person, Donna.”

 

“So you’ve said.”

 

He smiles at her before lifting his hand to brush a blonde tress away from her eyes. Briefly he allows his fingers to trace her jawline. He wants to memorize her. “Take care, Donna,” he breathes, leaning in to kiss her cheek softly.

 

Her head turns, causing his lips to find the very corner of her mouth, and he has to resist the urge to kiss her fully again. He promised her he wouldn’t pursue her, and he’s not going to break that promise two minutes after making it. He rests his forehead against hers, though, giving her the opportunity to change her mind, and when she doesn’t, he pulls away, running his thumb over her cheekbone one last time before moving down the steps.

 

“Josh?”

 

Slowly he turns and looks up at Donna. The hand not holding her keys is fiddling with her necklace and she’s looking at him a bit sadly. “It’s for the best,” she tells him.

 

He nods slowly. “Sure.” He knows she’s right, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way.


End file.
